Friday, January 30, 2009

My Family Rocks by Susan Shull


I don’t mean in the musical sense, although I do have my own “playlist” of tunes passed down the Marrs family tree to my cousins and me. I am already teaching Alivia, Faith and Amy Flo these family favorites, including the famous “Once I Went a Swimmin” which my Aunt Mickey sings while playing the guitar and the harmonica that she wears in a holster-type gadget around her neck.

No, my family aren’t musical rockers, but they do rock babies and sing lullabies. My Grandma Marrs rocked me and my boys while singing “Go Tell Aunt Rhodie” over and over until sleep couldn’t be avoided and we went to sweet dreamland. My mom rocked my boys singing the same song and now she sits in the chair with our newest little granddaughter.

One of my favorite memories of Brock when the boys were little was afternoon naptime. I would pull the rocker up to the east window of our living room and sing him to sleep while looking out and enjoying Gayle and Jesse’s (our neighbors) ever-changing windbreak of trees. It was beautiful in every season. That was such a sweet peaceful time in the midst of crazy days.

Now that I am a Grammie, I want my little granddaughters to know the feeling of contentment and safety that I felt in the arms of my loved ones. The feeling of being totally loved with no need to worry about a thing. The feeling they will always be cared for.

Do you ever wish you could crawl into God’s lap, relax against his strong shoulders, and be told everything would be okay? I have wanted to do that lately. It seems every week I hear very sad stories of the struggles people are facing-with health, with relationships, with money. Unfortunately, I can’t do a thing to help with most of it and it gets to be too much.

As I had surgery to remove the skin cancer from my nose a few days ago, I had quite a bit of time to think. The struggles being faced by members of my earthly family and my Church family kept coming to mind and I wanted to climb in the rocker with God. That is when I was reminded just how very lucky Christians are. The God who created the universe desires a relationship with us. He cares what happens and wants us to bring our worries and concerns to him, so that is what I did.

I pray that instead of trying to carry the burdens of those around me, I will instead turn them over to my God who is big enough and who cares enough to provide comfort and peace to those who need it. The Psalms speak over and over of God being our shelter and I am going to claim that promise. I may not be able to literally crawl into my Heavenly Father’s lap, but I can be comforted every time I come to him in prayer.

Psalm 55:22a Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.

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